Authenticity became quite a buzz word recently, also related to marketing, selling and business in general. It is a general principle. Its meaning is about how well we manage our inner world within the struggles we experience in the outer world while trying to stay true to what matters to us.
I firmly believe that authenticity is the new currency of fair values in our society. In my opinion, this especially holds true in business along with being able to succeed actually in what you do as a business owner. If you have chosen to be an entrepreneur you may not only want to run a thriving business. You may also wish to contribute to making the world a better place because you have a mission to share with what you do. Your intentions are to help others to either find a solution or reach their goals.
So let’s get honest here: do you feel like you want to be authentic in all that you do, but sometimes simply don’t know what that means or what this could look like on a day to day basis? Or how you could apply this to your business?
What does authenticity mean in the context of business?
In fact, it is quite simple, even though the realisation may take some time and effort. An authentic business is a business that matches who you are with your values, standards, beliefs and aspirations. When you are in alignment with what you do and what you have to offer, you are serving from a place of authentic care and engagement. You are connecting with your audience and clients in a way that only you can connect. In other words, you are an expert in what you do while loving what you do and serving your customers.
In case you’ve always wondered what sets successful, conscious entrepreneurs apart, the answer is just that they have brought their genuine abilities to their business and remain tuned to their unique wisdom and purpose. In this context, those entrepreneurs are role models encouraging others to follow this principle as well. To do so, start with these steps:
How to incorporate authenticity in your business
- Identify your life-guiding values and use them as your compass in all your decisions and actions in your business.
- Identify your passions. What are you passionate about in life? What do you most enjoy doing in your professional life?
- dentify your unique mission. What are your core strengths? What are your talents? What are you good at? What do you love doing?
- Be honest, be trustworthy and approachable in all you do. Find your style and use it for approaching things in your business.
- Serve others and don’t short-sightedly chase the next sale only. Establish connections with you audience that then will lead to customer relations that will turn out to be more sustainable in the long run.
Uniqueness pays off
It is encouraging to know that each of us has our own talents and strengths. We may be offering the same types of services or products like so many others in our field of expertise, but it’s our unique personality, our experiences our set of values and our authentic self that set each of us apart and provides an opportunity for success. You can achieve that too because being authentic in business is one, if not the most, important thing to do, next to maintaining integrity and ethics in business.
